It was as though it was Christmas. I couldn’t sleep much last night and woke up early this morning. Why? Because Today I was getting my Mac Mini. What? A Mac Mini? Why??

Well, it all started when I was doing a future scenario planning exercise on what the future of operating systems held. Researching the various operating systems, their features and strengths led me to believe the Mac OS X is truly a contender to Microsoft Windows. So why would I leave Windows? Well, the more accurate question is “why would I stay?”

Windows was becoming more and more frustrating to use and Mac OS X offered a viable alternative. I could run Office (which is the next on my list to try and ditch) which is the main Windows application that I would use on a regular basis. And guess what, Entourage (Mac Office’s Outlook) actually understands how IMAP should work (And so they should, they’ve been doing Exchange servers for years). It fixed all the things I didn’t like about Outlook and has some great features, like the project manager so I can keep all my files relating to a particular project all in one place.

I have been amazed at just how little configuration you need to do with the Mac. It worked literally out of the box. Sure, I had to let it do a full software update before it would talk WPA to my wireless router, but so does Windows XP, only I didn’t even really need to try hard to set up wireless networking. It couldn’t be easier.

Java and Shockwave seem to come standard so I have only needed to install Office, VNC viewer (so I can access my old PC), MPlayer (for full screen DivX, Xvid, etc…) and Firefox. I can print to PDF as part of the operating system (the way it should be).

I haven’t even mentioned expose yet. The fantastic alternative to Alt + Tab. You can actually see what window you are switching too. Briliiant!! DVDs also worked out of the box.

I wonder what is in store for me Tomorrow. And then Mac OS X Tiger (which I have already pre-ordered on a $14.95 upgrade)